2020 recipients of the City of Geneva’s Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier and Galland grants

Image

The ceremony gave the public the chance to discover the young artistic scene in Geneva with the exhibition of the twelve nominees at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CAC) (on show until 11 October 2020). 

Since 1955, the City of Geneva has awarded grants intended to support young contemporary creation, thereby offering the recipients the opportunity to develop their personal research or pursue their studies, for example in a foreign country.

Like last year, two grants each worth CHF 10,000 were awarded through the Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier and Galland fund (BLCG). One grant is intended for the applied arts and the other for plastic arts. From 2020, in parallel to the general considerations of the City’s Cultural Service on the payment of artists, their work conditions and, more generally, their recognition as professionals, it has been decided to award each artist invited to show their works a flat rate sum of CHF 2,000.

Recipients of the 2020 grants

City of Geneva Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier and Galland grant for applied arts, exceptionally divided into two and awarded to:

Sebastian Gross (1989*)

The members of the jury were impressed by the investment and production work of the artist who truly assumed the role of conductor. The project was greatly admired for its approach to the phenomenon of “broutage”, or online scamming, and the inequalities that persist between Africa and the West. The spectator is invited to become invested in the project and thus awaken their curiosity with regard to North-South disparities. The quality of the films was also unanimously singled out for praise by the jury.

Laurence Rasti (1990*)

This photographic work places several major inter-related topics on the same level: the combat of two women whose bodies take on a new form. Two projects born independent of one another that Laurence Rasti has brought into each other’s sphere to form a whole through the medium of photography. This also highlights the question of the representation of the female gender, which is not limited to a single definition. Her intelligent, touching and shrewdly articulated work was praised by the jury.

City of Geneva Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier and Galland grant for plastic arts, awarded to Nicolas Cilins (*1985)

The jury applauded the pertinence of Nicolas Cilins’ installation, which is playful and full of levity while simultaneously criticising a sensitive geopolitical situation. This ambivalence lends the artist a singular position in his documentary approach. The artist’s feat is all the more impressive as his archive work was conducted at the height of the confinement period in Paris.

Awarding the young contemporary creation grants also provides the City of Geneva with the opportunity to announce the recipients of three other grants in the field of contemporary art:

The grant for a photographic project of a documentary nature, awarded to Nicolas Crispini (1961*)

Having awarded the grant to young photographers for the first three editions, the members of the jury was pleased to award this year’s grant to Nicolas Crispini, an experienced and recognised artist. This grant will enable him to conduct work in the field in Japan and the United States with a view to creating the 4th section of his ambitious project in a blend of photographic and artistic investigation of the historic breakthrough and horror caused by the bombing of Hiroshima. It will also enable him to complete and refine the first three sections. The grant will serve to bring additional visibility to this documentary work d’auteur, which explores and highlights one of the main problems facing humanity.

The grant for a mediation project in the field of contemporary art, awarded to the Théâtre de l'Usine (TU) Hélène Mateev (1982*), Léa Genoud (1990*)

The TU has scooped the grant for the second time in five years, this time for its “Take care!” project.
The project calls on mediation workshops to accompany the TU’s programme for 2020-2021, a season marked by the notions of care, memory, tenderness and community. Active in the field of contemporary art, all the members of the jury admired the trans-disciplinary nature of the project, with its aim of building bridges between artistic disciplines and practices. In particular, the jury appreciated the openness of the project. Two workshops will issue calls for projects for the local scene with a view to encouraging new spectators to visit the theatre. This is yet more proof of the horizontal and circular nature of their approach.

The grant for an artist over the age of 35, awarded to Thomas Perrodin (1982*)

The artist Thomas Perrodin receives this grant for the creation of a monographic issue of his work on screen-printed posters. The jury greatly appreciated the artist’s highly experimental work for its rich, minimalistic and interdisciplinary nature. A pivotal research work for Geneva, it also represents the memory of a more alternative yet just as important cultural life.

Event organised in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for Contemporary Art

Exhibition from 18 September to 11 October 2020 (Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.)